The Next Big Thing: The Pigs Are Sick In China
Do you remember the big bird flu epidemic that was going to destroy civilization?You know, H5N1? Don't tell me you've forgotten about it already. Well, as they say, if pigs could fly.....
You know how it is when you think of something ominous and get a chill? I wonder what this will do to the price of bacon.
Jim Martin
In an outbreak reminiscent of the early stages of SARS and bird flu, pigs are growing sick and dying across China’s southeastern Guangdong province. Roughly 3,000 pigs have been infected on hundreds of family farms and about 300 have died.At least we don't have anything else to be worried about right now, right? Remember these letters, PRRS, which stands for Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome. Sounds pretty damned serious doesn't it? Well, as bad as that sounds, it may have mutated. What an ugly word, mutated.
Certain symptoms of the current outbreak, including massive hemorrhaging, are not consistent with PRRS, and might indicate that the disease—most likely caused by a virus—has mutated. The outbreak has renewed fears that a viral pandemic is in the making in southern China.Well, there you have it, the next big thing and you heard it here first.
You know how it is when you think of something ominous and get a chill? I wonder what this will do to the price of bacon.
Jim Martin
Labels: China, World Health Organization
posted by Libby Spencer at 8:29 PM
8 Comments:
Unfortunately, with all the additives to animal feed like hormones and antibiotics and all the gene manipulation going on with livestock, it was only a matter of time before some minor retrovirus mutated and became a more serious threat. That's what viruses do. But governments around the world, including ours, don't want us to know about the cause and effect of the actions they have allowed in the food industry. Our food supply is hopelessly altered and tainted so unless you grow all your own, you never know what the hell is in it. Third world countries, where sanitation and health care are poor to nonexistent, are hot beds for viral growth and mutation. Like mad cow, it's only a matter of time before another virus crosses the animal/human species barrier.
Rocky
That is so true especially in poor countries where a family cannot afford to dispose of a sick pig or chicken. They would still eat it.
But governments around the world, including ours, don't want us to know about the cause and effect of the actions they have allowed in the food industry.
So the government has the ability to outlaw viral mutation? Damn, learn something new everyday.
B Moe
This comment has been removed by the author.
No grasshopper, it can't eliminate public stupidity either but the story does point out some of the consequences of unregulated capitalism in China and some of the dangers of deregulating and privatizing everything. It also points out the dangers of uncontrolled free trade.
Government can't control evolution, but it sure as hell can set safety standards for its food supply and enforce them. That goes for them and for us.
If we're buying food from a country like China with dodgy food safety practices, we need to be vastly more vigilant over here. Any country of that size and undergoing an industrial revolution without the ability or desire to regulate its rapacious pursuit of the almighty Yuan is a danger to us.
China needs its own Upton Sinclair!
Thanks, Capt, I couldn't have said it any better myself. B Moe, perhaps I didn't post a clear enough comment; by allowing additives such as hormones and antibiotics in animal feed and by allowing gene manipulation in the animals themselves, governments step into murky water as far as how these artificial changes affect our food supply. So, if there were better government controls, I guess you could say they have the ability to "outlaw" the practices that promote harmful viral mutation.
B Moe, perhaps I didn't post a clear enough comment...
Nah, I was being an ass. My apologies.
Third world countries, where sanitation and health care are poor to nonexistent, are hot beds for viral growth and mutation. Like mad cow, it's only a matter of time before another virus crosses the animal/human species barrier.
This I agree with, and tend to think it overrides the concern about hormones and anti-biotics a bit. While we do need to be careful, I think breeding stronger, healthier stock is a step in the right direction. Mutations can and will happen regardless.
B Moe
OK, B Moe, no apology needed, sometimes I can be an ass myself. I do have my own twisted sense of humor and occasional sardonic wit. Mad Cow disease is a good example of harmful viral mutation precipitated by the addition of ground up animal leavings into animal feed. And you are right,retroviruses mutate to adapt to their environment and it is a natural course. Sometimes it's ok and sometimes it makes some living things sick. We have lived with this since the dawn of time, eventually producing vaccines to combat the illness producing viruses. I wouldn't be too quick to discount the ill effects of the addition of hormones and antibiotics to feed. Don't you ever wonder if this obesity epidemic in America, especially among young people might not, in part have something to do with the same hormones fed to animals to make them bigger and fatter in order to have a shorter time to market? There is a hidden epidemic in this country involving young girls having to be on suppression therapy because they are maturing too fast and this can cause a variety of problems. I'm talking about girls 8 to 10 years old. I have heard this from several mothers whose daughters require therapy and have seen mention of this syndrome in medical articles. Now I wonder about those old Enquirer articles about South American girls giving birth at 8 or 9 years old. A lot of experimentation with food and additives has taken place in these poorer countries over the years with little if any gov interference. We also know that ABT resistant strains of TB as well as other infectious diseases developed from the over use and misuse of antibiotics. We keep messing around like kids with a chemistry set and we will reap what we sow.
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